The Indian victory lap was rudely cut short when Sri Lanka registered an 8-wicket victory on the touring side and claimed the Idea Cup in their name. Sri Lanka comfortably won the third and deciding test match with one day of play still left thus shushing the long talks of Indian bouncing back, formidable batting bowling orders and the fire in belly spirit.

The real strength of the Indian batting strength came to display in the match. There wasn’t a single noticeable performance spare Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. The fact holds valid for the entire series where these two batsmen scored more runs collectively than the rest of the team! Ganguly, Tendulkar and Laxman failed miserably to churn out runs when they were needed. The middle order might not have been consistent in performance but its non-performance has been very consistent throughout the series.

And the bowlers disappointed yet again. After the super-show they put on in the last match in which India won entirely because of them, it was a disaster this time. They took wickets but conceded far too many runs. They vindicated the point that India should not think of switching its loyalty from being a batting-dependent to a bowling-dependent team. Sadly these days, we don’t have much going for our batting either. India missed an able batsman and wicket-keeper in MS Dhoni while the make-shift keeper Parthiv Patel struggled behind the stumps and on them.

Sri Lanka took full advantage of the Indian over-confidence and earned the cup. They have some credible batsmen in their side, agreed. But their edge over the Indians was the consistency displayed by Jayawardene, Dilshan and Sangakkara. Anil Kumble must be biting his own tongue remembering how he remarked before the start of the series that Mendis won’t be a threat to the team. Mendis struck once again and did the fatal damages. It is surprising to see how the Indian Fab Four have been unable to gauge Mendis’s bowling three matches down the tour. Together with Murali, this can be world’s most lethal spin combination coming up.

This is not the first time India has given under pressure and lost. However the team should focus more on the ODI series starting August 18 instead of crying over spilt milk.

Comments

Add New RSS

3.25 Copyright (C) 2007 Alain Georgette / Copyright (C) 2006 Frantisek Hliva. All rights reserved."

Newer news items:

Older news items: